LVNV drained my bank account, OLD account not even reported anymore...

[Anonymous]

I have had dealings with LVNV and garnishments.  They have filed 2 different judgements against me but neither was a surprise since a process server showed up at my door for both. I stupidly ignored them. One of them, nothing ever happened with it and that was filed in 2010. It's still on my credit for another year and a half.  I am terrified it will rear its ugly head one day.  The one they filed last year for another account ended up with wage garnishments that will end with my last Dec paycheck, thank goodness.  I find it odd that they were able to take money from your actual bank account 1) without a judgement and 2) for credit card / installment debt.  Why didn't they garnish your paycheck instead?  From what I have read, debt collectors generally only touch your bank account for tax liens or maybe child support.  Also how were they allowed to take everything. Aren't they limited to around 25%? 

I guess your first step needs to be getting another account, if you have not already. I sure would not let direct deposit or any other money  hit that other account again.  Did they take all $13,000 or just whatever was in the account? In other words, if you only had, say $2k in the account, are you now negative $11k? 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have had dealings with LVNV and garnishments.  They have filed 2 different judgements against me but neither was a surprise since a process server showed up at my door for both. I stupidly ignored them. One of them, nothing ever happened with it and that was filed in 2010. It's still on my credit for another year and a half.  I am terrified it will rear its ugly head one day.  The one they filed last year for another account ended up with wage garnishments that will end with my last Dec paycheck, thank goodness.  I find it odd that they were able to take money from your actual bank account 1) without a judgement and 2) for credit card / installment debt.  Why didn't they garnish your paycheck instead?  From what I have read, debt collectors generally only touch your bank account for tax liens or maybe child support.  Also how were they allowed to take everything. Aren't they limited to around 25%? 

I guess your first step needs to be getting another account, if you have not already. I sure would not let direct deposit or any other money  hit that other account again.  Did they take all $13,000 or just whatever was in the account? In other words, if you only had, say $2k in the account, are you now negative $11k? 

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There has to be a judgement against me, I am now accepting that it's simply not reported credit wise, I guess I am extremely lucky it's at least not impacting my credit!  They only took what I had in my bank account and lucky for me I'm pretty broke so they only got $388 anyway, they did cause my $360 capital one payment which was coming out of that to overdraft but I made some moves and put $370 back in there today and the payment SHOULD still be honored *crossing fingers*

They cannot garnish my paychecks because my paychecks do not exist, I am an independent freelancer I am not "employed" by anyone which is a god send at a time like this, now if they could garnish wages from freelance sites and other places then well I just hope it doesn't come to that. My fiance is going to open a new checking account for me to use for all of my bill payment and everything so it won't even be in my name that way I can still continue to function while trying to resolve this.

I am keeping my current bank accounts open, I really want to stay there but going to make sure I just never deposit anything to it again... right now it has a sub $10 balance, Not sure if they'll come after that or not but even if so they can only take me down to $0.00 and not negative as long as I don't use the account.

I really, really hope I can get them to settle for low... I have hazy memories of some lady dealing with me on this back in like 2011 or so and I could have sworn she said she could do $5000'ish so maybe it's possible but that was 4-5 years ago and I may be fabricating a memory out of optimism, I'd still have to figure out how to borrow $5-6K though if that's even an option.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
It sucks being garnished but I can tell you from experience they will start with your check next if it hasn't already been sent to your employer.
I was hit with a 800+ garnishment out of every check plus they took all my over time. I didn't even bother fighting it. I paid off a judgment of 11k in 6 mo. Ruffly 1800 a month. The total time was 8 months but they had a two month gap where they took nothing because they had to renew the judgement. But it was 6 payments. I wasn't happy but nothing I could do. It was 25% of my check. I had no other bills so Idgaf. I'd think in Michigan (I'm from Michigan) as long as a reasonable amount of attempts are tried then they can get a judgment. But they have to prove they attempted. So somewhere along the line you may have signed for a letter etc. it was a very long time before my garnishment. When it happened I had actually forgot about signing for the letter.

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Wow, that sucks... I would love to just pay and resolve it but it's a financial impossibility right now, I'm a self employed contract designer who sometimes has work, I'm already a month behind on my $1100 rent payment so this is just not helpful especially with all my other bills... I wonder if I could get them to agree to a drastically reduced settlement and get a loan...

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As others have stated you need to CALL YOUR BANK. Find out how and why this money was taken from your accounts. Its possible that what they did was illegal, but you can't determine that until you talk to your bank.

Open another account immediately in another small bank or CU that is NOT local to you, but has online banking. If there is a judgement out there somwhere (it may not even be in your state) you want your accounts to be difficult to sniff out.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

As others have stated you need to CALL YOUR BANK. Find out how and why this money was taken from your accounts. Its possible that what they did was illegal, but you can't determine that until you talk to your bank.

Open another account immediately in another small bank or CU that is NOT local to you, but has online banking. If there is a judgement out there somwhere (it may not even be in your state) you want your accounts to be difficult to sniff out.

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I called the bank twice now today, all they were able to tell me is the name of the party and that it was a garnishment for $13,000 and gave me their phone number they had no other information they could give me, at least over the phone no one said they could get anymore than what they gave me so I'm going to wait and see what I get in the mail. I called the bank at 3AM, 8AM and a few hours ago... I don't think it's illegal I just think I haven't looked for the judgement in the right place yet -- I called both counties I have lived in and they found nothing but I'll try calling Lansing and see if they can find anything.

I was told it could even be in the location of the creditor, sounds odd but I'm hoping I'll receive the appropriate information soon in the mail if I get nowhere on the phone so far everyone I have called has been a bust.

My fiance is opening another account for me so I can pay all of my bills and so on... won't even be in my name so it should be downright impossible for them to intrude it, I can't imagine they could legally go after her account even if I was using it.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I want to call them because I'm curious how low of an amount they'd settle for but then that's probably me opening a new can of worms in some way or another, I feel like I can't even open my mouth to these people without hurting myself... I think it seems all the damage is done already and it's an impossibility to refute it so maybe I should start getting settlement figures -- Is there any chance in the realm of reality to get one this size down to 40% range? less? way more? I couldn't get them any lower than 65% on the Charge-Off I just settled last month --- Which is why they now know my bank account as soon as they do, whoops.

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This is a perfect example of why you do not give a CA your banking info if there is any chance of a large debt like this waiting in the wings. LVNV is one of the worst CA's out there in terms of underhanded unethical BS like this.

Try to get as much info on the Judgement that you can, and move your banking to a SMALL non-local bank or CU that has online banking. Your bank should be able to provide you with a copy of the paperwork they were presented with to obtain the levy.

[Anonymous]

Yep... I am learning this the hard way, that's for sure -- If this ever happens again I'll know to send a money order or something instead.

[Anonymous]

Call the number the bank gave you - don't admit anything - just tell them that money was taken from your account and you want to know why.  If they say they have a judgment, ask what court it was filed in and if they have a case number.  Then hang up once you get the info.   Don't admit anything - don't answer much - except your name and where you bank.....they already know that much anyway.   Ask questions, don't answer them.   Don't try to settle yet...... Get the information so you can contact the court. 

There may be steps you can take to vacate the judgment.  Which - if you can - give your more leverage when you settle.

As for your current account - deposit enough in it to keep it open - $15 of so - and then use the account your fiance is setting up for you for now.   At least you can pay your bills.   Be careful too - I had my secured card closed and the deposit (after paying balance off) taken as well.   Nice job US Bank - fortunately for me the card was about maxed out - so the bank got like $285 and the levy only got like $15 - but then they closed my card - that stunk!  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Maybe I'll get a loan from Springleaf Financial to pay for my garnishment redardlng my old account w/ Springleaf Financial... It'd be like Inception.

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LOL!

[Anonymous]

This happened to me last year with the same CA (I'm in Colorado). I had no idea there was a judgment because I was never served a summons & it wasn't on my credit report. My credit union sent me a copy of the writ of garnishment which showed the county and court the judgment was obtained in. I had 10 days to file an exemption claim with the court to see if I could get any of my $ back (they seized $1500). I filed a claim, went to court, & the creditor was only able to keep $75 of it & the rest was released back to me (it took about 6 weeks to get my $ back). I gave proof some of the $ was my daughter's SSI & the rest was wages earned from employment so they couldn't keep it all. This event led to my filing Ch 7 because I was told anytime I had $ in any bank account that had my name on it, it could be seized. So file an exemption when you get the paperwork, you may be able to get some of your $ back. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This happened to me last year with the same CA (I'm in Colorado). I had no idea there was a judgment because I was never served a summons & it wasn't on my credit report. My credit union sent me a copy of the writ of garnishment which showed the county and court the judgment was obtained in. I had 10 days to file an exemption claim with the court to see if I could get any of my $ back (they seized $1500). I filed a claim, went to court, & the creditor was only able to keep $75 of it & the rest was released back to me (it took about 6 weeks to get my $ back). I gave proof some of the $ was my daughter's SSI & the rest was wages earned from employment so they couldn't keep it all. This event led to my filing Ch 7 because I was told anytime I had $ in any bank account that had my name on it, it could be seized. So file an exemption when you get the paperwork, you may be able to get some of your $ back. 

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While that is technically true - its a practical imossibility. Reason is that they have to KNOW where to look for those accounts. There are literally tens of thousands of banks in the country, many of which offer online banking, so your bank really does not have to be local to where you live anymore. Judgement creditors typically will search the "big" nationwide banks for your accounts, and any small banks that are local to your home address. Beyond that, it becomes a literal needle in a haystack situation. Thats why I always recommend if you have a large judgement situation, the first thing you should do is close your accounts and move them to a small online bank/cu thats is not local.